Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Experts have expressed concern that a planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission will serve as a legal whitewash of past gross human rights abuses, allowing perpetrators to avoid prosecution.

Irvan NR, Palu – Poso Police headquarters was besieged on Sunday by thousands of people protesting the death of terrorist suspect Hamid Sudin, who was shot and killed by police attempting to arrest him in relation to the bloody attacks on three Christian villages in Central Sulawesi on October 12.

Netty Dharma Somba & Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jayapura/Jakarta – Papuan human rights activists said they were prepared to support the planned investigation by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) into alleged atrocities in the province.

Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Hasyim Muzadi criticized the country's security authorities for issuing repeated warnings of possible disturbances ahead of the 2004 elections, saying this would only succeed in causing anxiety.

ID Nugroho and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Surabaya/Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Hasyim Muzadi called for a moral movement to eradicate corruption because the law had proven toothless.

Jakarta – At least 16 suspected Acehnese rebels were killed and nine arrested during a military offensive in Aceh from Thursday to Saturday, the Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Sunday.

A press release issued by the TNI said four civilians were also killed in the operation.

Post-independence confidence in East Timor has declined, with nearly 40 per cent of East Timorese saying they feel worse off now than under Indonesian rule and less than half optimistic about the future, according to a survey.

Lesley McCulloch – It is too easy for the world to forget Aceh, an embattled, silent and closed province in the northwest of Indonesia. The reason is simple: international journalists are prevented from entering legally and the local media are either embedded in the military or attacked – even kidnapped – when attempting to work independently.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said on Friday that based on preliminary findings the Indonesian military (TNI) committed gross abuses in Papua in 2001 and 2003, and says it is launching a legal probe into the incidents.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesia's military promised Saturday to investigate claims that it carried out extra-judicial killings and torture in Papua province. But it warned that if the charges were not true, it would pursue legal action against the body that made them, the National Commission on Human Rights.

Canberra – East Timor's prime minister Friday accused Australia of deliberately dragging out talks aimed at bolstering his impoverished nation's share of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas under the sea dividing the two nations.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesia's House of Representatives, now debating privatizing the country's water supply, should probably take a close look at the one place in the nation where water distribution is already in private hands – Jakarta, where a comedy of errors has produced skyrocketing costs and little else.

Laksamana.Net – Not content with murdering Papua province's passive independence leader Theys Eluay two years ago, Indonesian authorities have now destroyed part of a memorial dedicated to the slain activist.

Sidney Jones (Dow Jones Newswires) – Indonesians are not happy with the war against terrorism, despite the success of their police in fighting it, primarily because they don't trust the United States government and don't want to be part of a US-led campaign.

Keith Andrew Bettinger, Washington – The unilateralism and anti-terror policies of the United States are increasingly damaging its relations with the largest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia, where many view the "war on terror" as anti-Islam. Meanwhile, China is quietly moving closer to the archipelago.

Jakarta – TNI (armed forces) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has asserted that the TNI are not soldiers for hire. Therefore if there are companies which need security services, the companies concerned do not have a contract with the TNI, but with the government.

Frederik Balfour – Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao became President of the world's newest country, East Timor in May, 2002. A veteran guerrilla leader against the 24-year Indonesian occupation of his country, Gusmao faces the challenge of managing the peace for 750,000 people in an impoverished but oil-rich country.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Beleaguered by the unpopular policies that prompted many of its cadres to join other parties, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) has enlisted actors and actresses as its legislative candidates in the upcoming elections.

Canberra – Australia and East Timor began talks on Wednesday aimed at settling a bitter dispute over carving up the seabed between the two nations, which holds billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves.

Dili – Thousands of people gathered Wednesday to remember the victims of one of East Timor's worst massacres under Indonesian rule with a moment of silence and flowers as well as demands for an investigation to find the perpetrators.

Australia is refusing to set a deadline for talks beginning today with its neighbour East Timor on their contentious maritime borders. East Timor is contesting the boundaries set under a 1972 agreement between Australia and Indonesia when East Timor was ruled by Portugal.

Otto Syamsuddin Ishak, Sociologist, Jakarta – The government has prioritized the extension of martial law over an evaluation of achievements made in the last six months. One could ask in jest: What party would most potentially be in a state of emergency after November 19, 2003?

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The tragic tale of Sumaryono – a young man who had been living with part of his intestinal tract protruding through an abdominal incision due to apparent malpractice – exemplified the poor's lack of access to professional medical service in the capital.

Dadan Wijaksana and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – While at first it was deemed solely a run-of-the-mill scam confined to the banking sector, the Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) scandal has now taken on a political dimension, which could lead to a brutal political war ahead of the 2004 elections, a top political analyst said.

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta – In less than two months, dozens of squatters living under a section of Pluit-Cawang overpass toll road in North Jakarta will not only lose their makeshift tents but their access to free healthcare as well.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Irked by allegations of involvement in numerous human rights abuses, spokesmen from the Indonesian Military (TNI) expressed on Tuesday their opposition to a truth and reconciliation commission.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Members of the Papuan Presidium Council (PDP) commemorated here on Tuesday the death of former charismatic PDP chairman Theys Hiyo Eluay, who was killed two years ago by Indonesian military personnel.

Jakarta – Two witnesses of the bloody 1984 Tanjung Priok incident withdrew on Tuesday their written and signed statements in the dossier against defendant Maj. Gen. (ret) Pranowo.

Tiarma Siboro and Teuku Agam Muzakkir, Jakarta/Lhokseumawe – Hundreds of protesters from the country's two troubled provinces took to the streets on Saturday to demand for an end to martial law in Aceh and attempts to partition Papua.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timorese politicians are hoping a formal headcount to identify former pro-independence guerillas will end their discontent and return them to the social mainstream.

Unemployed veterans who say their role in the fight for independence from Indonesia has not been recognised are a potential destabilising force for East Timor.

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne – As the United Nations winds down its presence in East Timor ahead of next May's departure, the fledgling state is still wrestling with forces that could offer it a stable future or, should matters not be well managed, tear it apart. More than ever, East Timor's future is in the balance.

Indonesian troops have killed nine more separatist rebels in Aceh province, the military said.

Sydney – Australia has denied bullying its tiny Pacific neighbour East Timor Tuesday as the nations prepared for talks on finalising a contentious martime border that will determine how billions of dollars in revenues from Timor Sea gas fields is split.

Nigel Wilson – Australia is refusing to give East Timor a timetable for reaching a permanent maritime boundary between the two countries that could affect ownership of billions of dollars in oil and gas reserves.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Samani, a man in his late 40s, works as a night guard at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta). He had always received his Rp 1 million salary on time, until three months ago when the institute's management told him that they had to cut his pay by 20 percent due to financial constraints.

From a correspondent in Dili – East Timor introduced its own coins today, hoping to spur economic development and create a symbol for the country following its hard-won independence from Indonesia two years ago.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Medan – An investigation by the Leuser Management Unit (UML) concluded over the weekend that the recent flash flood that swept through a North Sumatran resort town, which claimed hundreds of lives, was an indirect result of the rampant deforestation of Mount Leuser National Park.

The first lady of East Timor, Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, has urged Australia to consider the plight of the fledgeling nation when negotiations begin later this week on establishing maritime boundaries.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Legal and human rights leaders deplored a threat by two civilian security groups, who are apparently linked with Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea, to occupy the office of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), after the watchdog apparently angered the minister.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has no other choice but to disband the many civilian security and militia groups to prevent conflicts ahead of the 2004 elections, an international think tank group says.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's second-largest political party, Golkar, is working behind the scenes to turn the recent deadly clash between its cadres and supporters of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle (PDI-P) into a long-running campaign issue.

ID Nugroho and Tiarma Siboro, Situbondo/Jakarta – Aceh military operation commander Maj. Gen. Bambang Darmono will be replaced after leading the major offensive against rebels for almost six months.

Banda Aceh – Suspected Acehnese rebel commander Efendi Saputra committed suicide in his prison cell in Lhokseumawe district on Sunday, military spokesman Ahmad Yani Basuki said onMonday.

"Efendi Saputra, a subdistrict commander of the Acehnese separatist movement in North Aceh, hanged himself with a nylon rope," Basuki said in Lhokseumawe.

Jakarta – Indonesia has slammed the US, Japan and European Union for issuing a statement regretting the extension of martial law in Aceh province.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegwawa said the joint statement of the three powers was improper and smelt of interference in Indonesian sovereignty.

Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta - Commemorating Hero's Day on Monday November 10, scores of student activist from the Yogyakarta Indonesian Youth Front for Struggle (Front Perjuangan Pemuda Indonesia, FPPI) held an action rejecting the extension of the military emergency in Aceh.

Moch. N. Kurniawan and ID Nugroho, Jakarta/Surabaya – An independent election watchdog has alleged that some political parties are charging legislator hopefuls administrative fees of up to Rp 16 million (US$1,900).

Jakarta - Condemnations against the government's decision to extend the military emergency in Aceh continue to spring up. On Saturday November 8, hundreds of people from Aceh Papua Solidarity (SAP) demonstrated, not just against the policy of extending the military emergency in Aceh but also the division of Papua [into three separate provinces].

Sandra McLean – During East Timor's independence struggle, few men were more revered than Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the resistance movement. Gusmao was like a god to his people – now he is the president of East Timor, which was declared an independent nation in 2002 after 27 years of Indonesian control.

Tim Johnston – Indonesia may be gearing up for a new offensive against separatist rebels in the restive eastern province of Papua, observers believe. Analysts in Jakarta have warned that the killing of 10 suspected members of the Free Papua Organisation (OPM) this week could be the first shots in a renewed campaign.

Greg Poulgrain – The Jakarta media yesterday strongly criticised Indonesian army personnel who shot dead nine Papuans in a pre-dawn raid in the highlands of West Papua.